The yellow one is Lemon Boy, the darker one is Purple Cherokee, and the green one is Green Zebra. Aren't they just darling?! I hit up the Saturday farmer's market over in Santa Monica this weekend, in preparation for a lunch I was preparing for my friend H for her birthday. Then I hit up Bay Cities and went crazy. I do that sometimes. Go crazy buying all sorts of stuff I need and may need. Did that last week at Mitsuwa too. What's wrong with me?! I've gone food shopping crazy!
I got some wonderful wonderful burrata at Bay Cities. The skin on this creamy mozzarella was super thin and the flesh creamy and milky. What better way to enjoy it then a simple salad with beautiful tomatoes and fragrant basil straight from the market? I drizzled the salad with a Spanish olive oil, sprinkled some fleur de sel, and ground black pepper. Nothing else, and it was truly delicious.
I also picked up some corn and chanterelle mushrooms at the farmer's market and fresh shell pasta at Bay Cities. I sauteed some pancetta, onion and garlic. Then added thyme, chanterelles, and a pinch of saffron. Deglazed with a bit of white wine then added the cut corn. Meanwhile I cooked the pasta in a pot of well salted water. Then tossed all together along with brown butter salsa verde, and shaved over some Pecorino Romano.
The dish I originally had in mind was fresh pasta with pancetta, pea, saffron and pecorino. And the leftover salsa verde was to be employed in the burrata tomato salad. But instead I kept the salad simple with a drizzle of the olive oil and decided to make brown butter salsa verde (a la Lucques) to finish the pasta. Brown butter is, well, browned butter. The salsa verde is made of parsley, mint, anchovies and capers. Now add those two together and you got yourself some herb infused nutty brown butter.
But in my little spontaneous turn of the recipe I believed I faltered a bit. The pasta definitely could do without the saffron since there was a lot of herb flavor going on. I would have used less butter or oil in order to control the total amount of fat in the dish. When I added the brown butter salsa verde, it was a bit too buttery. Perhaps more chanterelles would have been nice but those things are expensive and also I was out of money. Okay, enough analysis!
However, this is not to say that it wasn't delicious. H happily filled herself up with the pasta as did the rest of us. The corn was sweet, fresh, and cooked just enough to keep intact some of the pleasant crunch. And the Bay Cities' fresh pasta is so delicious. Do try it. It'll do well even with just a grind of black pepper, a shave of pecorino, and a drizzle of good olive oil.
I even decided to make the dessert. You guys know I only make dessert once in a while but since this menu was pretty simple I decided to put in some time in the dessert department. So profiterols with Ben & Jerry's Vanilla Ice Cream and chocolate sauce. I followed the Barefoot Contessa recipe for the profiterols and they came out delicious. The dough is sticky and messy to clean from the food processor but the recipe is super easy. I was happy with the results. I think we all were!
*Happy birthday H! Glad you enjoyed your lunch. :)
7 comments:
good gosh, i'm glad you explained what burrata was because i was thinking it had something to do with burro, or burong, which essentially means "fermented" in spanish and in tagalog respectively, and usually applied to a fermented fish product. although, cheese *is* a fermented dairy product, isn't it. yet somehow fermented fish and heirloom tomatoes does not appeal in the same way a soft cheese and heirloom tomatoes does :)
i haven't been to bay cities in ages, i must make a trip down there. your pasta--like the whole meal, really--looks delicious!
hi santos,
i'm glad burrata isn't any sort of fermented fish product! i've seen the word "burro" before but i always thought it was butter. hehe - luckily no casualties came of this understanding. :)
when i went to bay cities this time i really looked around. (as opposed to before fighting for my life and a sandwich). it's almost like a mini surfas w/lots and lots of pantry products. except with the best freshly baked bread.
That burrata looks so good...do you know where I can get really great burrata on my side of town? I live in Highland Park. Pasadena, Echo, Silverlake? We loooove burrata but have been disappointed in the past
hi tokyoastrogirl,
here is an excerpt from russ parson's article:
Burrata is available at several markets around town, but because it is a highly perishable product with a short shelf life, made in relatively small quantities by only two producers, it often goes out of stock. Look for Gioia's burrata at Bristol Farms stores; Wally's Wine & Spirits in Los Angeles, (310) 475-0606; Bay Cities Italian Deli in Santa Monica, (310) 395-8279 and other small markets. Cantaré Food's burrata is carried at Whole Foods markets and at Tutto Latte Express in Hollywood, (323) 463-1879. Both usually sell for about $10 a pound.
i've tried the cantare one from whole foods but i thought the gioia one was so much better.
i think if you goto straight to gioia in el monte you can purchase burrata and other products.
susan...i really enjoyed the food! thank you for everything!
Happy belated birthday, Han Nah!
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